#60 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Tyson Yunkaporta

Tyson Yunkaporta is an academic, an arts critic, and a researcher
who is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He
carves traditional tools and weapons and also works as a senior
lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in
Melbourne where he currently lives.


His book Sand Talk was published in 2019 to
resounding acclaim.  The paradigm-shifting book brings a
crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues
of history, education, money, power, and sustainability - and
offers a new template for living.


As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems
from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual
world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from
the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How
does this affect us? How can we do things differently?


In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he
provides answers. Yunkaporta's writing process begins with
images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of
what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and
diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking
for ways to connect images and stories with place and
relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand
talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to
convey knowledge. 


In Sand Talk , he provides a new model for our everyday
lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines
and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the
world. It's about how we learn and how we
remember. It's about talking to everyone and listening
carefully. It's about finding different ways to look at
things. Most of all it's about a very special way of
thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that
is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and
how it can save our world.